Empire and the Bomb How the U.S. Uses Nuclear Weapons to Dominate the

The United States is the only country to have dropped the atomic bomb. Since the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, every U.S. president has threatened nuclear war. This concise history shows how the U.S. has used nuclear weapons to bolster its imperial ambitions. Leading nuclear specialist and peace campaigner Joseph Gerson explains why atomic weapons were first built and used -- and how the U.S. uses them today to preserve its global empire. Gerson reveals how and why the U.S. made more than twenty threats of nuclear attack during the Cold War -- against Russia, China, Vietnam, and the Middle East. He shows how such theats continued under Presidents Bush and Clinton, and George W. Bush. The book concludes with an appeal for nuclear weapons abolition and an overview of the history of the anti-nuclear movement. Drawing from a wide range of sources, this fascinating and timely account shows how the U.S. has used nuclear weapons to dominate the world.

Dr. Joseph Gerson is Director of American Friends Service Committee's Peace and Economic Security Program in New England. A public intellectual and leading figure in the U.S. peace movement, his work focuses on U.S. hegemony and resistance to it, focusing on the Middle East, Asia, and nuclear weapons. He helped launch the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Freeze and Post-9-11 peace movements and works closely with peace movements in Asia and Europe. He has taught at Holy Cross and Regis Colleges and at Tufts University. His previous books include: The Sun Never Sets: Confronting the Network of U.S. Foreign Military Bases and With Hiroshima Eyes: Atomic War, Nuclear Extortion and Moral Imagination.